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1. Conventional loan with 50% down should get a great rate (very low risk to the bank), but banks are a captive to the loan buying and selling process.
They want to be able to sell your loan if necessary, so they follow industry norms for all their loans. A big bank might love to take your big down payment and give you a better rate, but then they may be unable to sell your loan to another bank.
Example - if you put down a very large down payment, and have plenty of cash in the bank, but the loan payment is a higher percentage of your monthly income than their “standard”, they may not want to give you a loan at the best rate.
2. PMI is a standard measure to mitigate risk to the bank.
3. I think you misunderstand LTV. The banks want high value and low loans, so a low LTV.
4. Title insurance is legitimate, but still quite a racket. You buy a policy for yourself and one for the bank. Yours is good forever if you keep the house. The one for the bank is new each time you refinance.
5. New law on RE commissions just came along, and the industry has been predicting a disaster (for them). Too early to know.
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